Ryan Evans
Ryan "Ry" Evans is one of the main characters of High School Musical. He's co-president of the East High Drama Club with his fraternal twin sister Sharpay, with whom he's co-starred in 17 school productions to date. In High School Musical, both Ryan and Sharpay function as antagonists, while in High School Musical 2, he acts as a protagonist. His 1st appearance was on January 20, 2006 in the original High School Musical on January 20, 2006, and his 2nd appearance was on August 17, 2007 in High School Musical 2. His 3rd and last appearance was on October 24, 2008 in High School Musical 3: Senior Year. He was chosen by Julliard University to take scholarship along with Kelsi because of his choreography in the Senior Year Spring Musical. http://www.afterelton.com/theater/2008/6/highschoolmusical Character Basic Details In the first film, Ryan is introduced as a student of East High who, along with his twin sister, Sharpay, is very involved in the Drama Department. Ryan is an excellent dancer and singer, tending to lean toward high-energy, upbeat songs and expressive choreography, often to the point of absurdity. He has a much more highly developed sense of fashion than most East High students, wearing button down shirts and slacks in a variety of colours and patterns and topping each outfit with some type of hat. The hats are one of Ryan's most notable features; he wears over 20 different ones throughout the 2 films, favoring newsboy caps, flat caps, and fedoras. Ryan was born on Feburary 27, 1990. Early Life Ryan and his sister Sharpay are the stepchildren of Vance and children of Derby Evans, and were the stars of 17 school productions. Ryan played Little League baseball in Rhode Island before he moved to Albuquerque. High School Musical In High School Musical, Ryan functions almost exclusively as Sharpay's sidekick, as the 2 attempt to keep Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez from winning the roles of Arnold and Minnie in the school's Winter musical, Twinkle Towne. In spite of a few moments where Ryan appears annoyed by Sharpay's domineering attitude, he accepts her leadership unquestioningly throughout the movie, most often acting as a source of comedy relief. High School Musical 2 In the 2nd movie, however, Ryan's discontentment is more pronounced as he struggles to be considered his sister's equal. Toward the beginning of the movie, he assists Sharpay in her plan to win Troy Bolton, but when Sharpay replaces him with Troy in their talent show performance, he gains enough confidence to stand up to her, befriending the Wildcats and agreeing to choreograph their show, instead. Sharpay is shocked by her brother's actions, demanding that he tell her when he became "one of them," to which Ryan merely takes that as a compliment. In the end, after many twists and turns, Ryan orchestrates a plan to have Troy sing with Gabriella (instead of Sharpay) in the Wildcats' show, performing Everyday. Sharpay, apparently moved by the performance, announces Ryan as the winner of the talent show and presents him with the Star Dazzle award. The 2 reconcile, joining the Wildcats in singing the movie's final number, All For One. High School Musical 3: Senior Year In the 3rd and final movie, Ryan was not seen in the basketball championship because of his performance as the mascot. Afterwards, he appears at Troy's party after the game. The next day, he's assigned to choreograph the senior year spring musical, at which he is pleased. Eating lunch that day with his sister, she suddenly breaks out into song, trying to persuade him to "want it all" as she does. He is reluctant to the idea at first, but then warms up to it. The siblings are both after the Juliard scholarship, which Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi and Troy are possible candidates for but can only be acquired by 1 of them, and Sharpay says that Ryan must spend time with Kelsi ("Polish her glasses, buy her ruby slippers, take her to prom! I don't know! Just do it.") so she'll write the best song for them. Ryan is uneasy about his sister's request, possibly indicating that he really does like Kelsi, but obeys. Putting Sharpay's plan into action, he offers to be Kelsi's date in the prom scene in the musical. The next day, Ryan arrives to school early, and sees Kelsi practicing her new song for the musical. He joins her in singing it, showing talent for playing the piano as well. They sing the 1st 3rd of the song, Ryan asking Kelsi to the real prom in the middle of their part, and then Troy and Gabriella finish the duet, Ryan helping them with their choreography. Sharpay then tells Ryan that Gabriella is up to go to college early, and that she'll steal Gabriella's part to get closer to Troy, as Gabriella won't be able to make it to the musical. Ryan, exasperated, tells Sharpay that she isn't Gabriella, sticking up for his friends. Nevertheless, Gabriella goes to the college early, and Sharpay steals Gabriella's role in Kelsi's song "Just Want To Be With You". Ryan still continues to work at choreographing the show, although a bit halfheartedly now. Soon after, the big musical begins. Ryan and Kelsi start off the show by singing the ballad "Last Chance", and then Chad and the East High Basketball Team sing "Now Or Never (Reprise)". Ryan then comes out and sings his 1st solo of the 3 films, "I Want It All (Reprise)". In the final number it's revealed that both Ryan and Kelsi have won Juilliard scholarships. Ryan is very surprised, but accepts it. His sister applauds him even though she didn't win it, and the 2 seem to get on to respectful terms with each other. At graduation, Ryan joins into the sing and dance during the final musical number, reflecting his experiences at East High and singing with his sister and dancing with Kelsi. At the end of the song, Troy, Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, Ryan and Sharpay walk onto a stage where they take 1 final bow. Intelligence There is some debate over Ryan's intelligence. In the 1st movie, it's implied that he's not very smart (at 1 point, he's unable to read "Go Drama Club!" off the basketball team's t-shirts). However, he's taking the same courses as Sharpay and the Wildcats, not remedial ones, and in the 2nd film, he isn't in summer school, so it can be inferred that he isn't significantly slower than his peers. He has some difficulty keeping up with Sharpay's schemes in High School Musical, but in High School Musical 2, he's apparently able to conceive and execute (with the help of Kelsi) a plan to allow Troy and Gabriella to sing together in the talent show. In addition, he's able to choreograph a show that allows a large amount of people to participate, which indicates a certain amount of technical knowledge. He can also read music, and play the piano. As he becomes more independent from his sister, he is portrayed as being a more and more intelligent character, showing a great deal of intelligence over Jason in the final film. Potential Homosexuality It is never explicitly stated that Ryan is gay. However, even with his implied pairing with Kelsi Nielsen in Senior Year, the debate on whether or not Ryan is gay is still up in the air. (Please note that this is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, many members of the GLBT community cheer the fact that such a character may exist in a Disney film). As there can be no definitive answer, here are the various arguments for and against Ryan's potential homosexuality: *Arguments for: **Ryan is often described as a "coded gay" character, meaning that the executives will never openly admit to it, but it is implied. Various factors about Ryan's character (his singing and dancing, increasingly flamboyant attire, closeness to his mother, and brief gush over Ashton Kutcher) provide signs that can not be confirmed to be *explicitly* gay; however, it is often understood that these can be indicating factors. **Another argument for Ryan's homosexuality is the fact that he remains the only major character who is unpaired at the end of the second movie. His implied pairing with Kelsi, it is argued, is an instance of executive meddling in response to angry parents. For this reason, many argue that the pairing with Kelsi is merely *implied* to be romantic for the sake of placating parents who were uneasy with such a popular film series for children having a homosexual character. Ryan invites Kelsi to the prom, and clearly not for ulterior motives as Sharpay had originally suggested. However, while he seems excited to be going with her, the question of whether his feelings for her are romantic or platonic is never answered, as their characters share no other possibly romantic scenes together for the rest of the film. **A 3rd argument for Ryan's homosexuality is the way the character is played in theater productions. In particular, the Atlanta-based 'Theater of the Stars'' production (Jan 12-28, 2007) had Ryan's locker hung with pictures of males (whereas the other boys had pictures of females) and had Ryan swooning as Troy passed by. In at least 1 officially sponsored production, therefore, Ryan is gay. *Arguments against: **Perhaps the strongest argument against Ryan's homosexuality is his pairing with Kelsi in the 3rd movie. It is obvious that he doesn't ask Kelsi to prom merely because his sister wants him to, as indicated by his dialogue with Sharpay following the scene. There is also a somewhat suggestive wink exchanged between Ryan and Kelsi in the beginning of the musical medley. There are other indications throughout all 3 movies that Kelsi and Ryan share a close relationship: she is the first character he speaks to other than Sharpay, they often wear hats that match, and they are seen working well together in the 2nd movie. Again, however, the question of whether their relationship is ultimately romantic or platonic is never openly discussed, only implied. (As an example, it should be noted he DOESN'T dance with Kelsi in the 2nd movie finale when both are partnered with others (Martha and Jason respectively)). **Another argument against Ryan's homosexuality is his relationship with Gabriella in the 2nd movie, and Troy's jealousy of it (best seen in the scene by the pool after the baseball game). Troy, at least, seems to think that Ryan is heterosexual. **Another argument against Ryan's homosexuality is, at the end of High School Musical 2, when the cast members are paired up holding lanterns on the golf course, he is paired with Martha Cox, whom he dances with for part of All For One (he dances with Sharpay for the other part). **And finally, of course, there is the issue of whether judging a character by stereotypes is really a good way to decide something like homosexuality. This is why Ryan's basic character in itself can't be used to solidly decide on way or another. In an interview, Grabeel stated “Obviously it’s a Disney movie they can’t have an openly gay character in the movie and that’s a whole other discussion about where the times are in this country. But the relationship between Ryan and Kelsi started from the first movie and cycled through all three. I think of course they would go to prom together and I still don’t think that that makes him gay or straight or anything. He needed someone to be a couple with - he’s not going to be with his sister because that’s gross. I’ll say this – there are so many more subtleties to that movie that kids will hopefully get when they’re showing it to their kids later, later, later on but never were meant to be taken as literal… it’s hard for me to talk about it the general public but over a beer with my friends we’ve dichotomized High School Musical so many different ways.” http://filmi-girl.livejournal.com/222393.html In conclusion, the question of Ryan's sexuality is uncertain, and it will likely remain so: the character might be heterosexual, homosexual, or the ambiguity could even suggest bisexuality. The president of Disney Channel Worldwide was once quoted as saying, "There have been characters on Disney Channel who I think people have thought were gay. That's for the audience to interpret." Leaving it to personal interpretation may have to be the stance to take in the case of Ryan Evans, as fans on both sides are unlikely to get a straight answer. Songs Songs uncredited in the movies/soundtracks *High School Musical-I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (uncredited in the movie) *High School Musical 2-Humuhumunukanuka'apua'a (uncredited in the movie) *High School Musical 3-Last Chance (uncredited in the movie and soundtack) External Links * [http://www.lucasgrabeel.org/ Lucas Grabeel official website] - Actor's Website * [http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/television/highschoolmusical/ High School Musical DVDs] - Disney's Official High School Musical DVD site * [http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyChannel/originalmovies/highschoolmusical/ Disney Channel UK official website] * ''Disney Channel Asia official website Category:Characters